a) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a process for the production of a molded article with a finished surface, which includes feeding a synthetic resin in a mold such as that employed, for example, for the production of domestic ceiling light fixtures and then hardening the synthetic resin within the mold. This invention is also concerned with a molded synthetic resin article which has been produced by the above process and is provided with a finished surface.
b) Description of the Related Art
As a process for the easy and low-cost production of lightweight articles such as frames of domestic ceiling light fixtures, it has heretofore been the practice to feed a synthetic resin such as an expandable polyurethane resin into a mold made of silicone rubber or the like and hardening the synthetic resin to form an article of the desired shape, followed by taking the thus-formed article out of the mold. Surface coating of the article so molded from the synthetic resin is then conducted in an additional coating step.
Whichever coating method is employed, the above described conventional process however requires to take the thus-molded synthetic resin article out of the mold after the hardening of the fed synthetic resin into the desired shape within the mold, and further to coat the molded synthetic resin article. The conventional process therefore requires the coating step in addition to the molding step of the synthetic resin within the mold. The conventional process is also accompanied by the drawbacks that the resulting coating is uneven, a coating material is wasted, and the coated surface has low adhesion to the base material and hence tends to separate.